How do 16-year-old Students Characterise Political Issues, and how do their Perceptions Compare with the Perceptions of Experts on Politics?

The majority of studies focusing on youth and politics look at adolescents’ interest, trust and participation in, attitudes toward and knowledge about formal politics. Despite a decline in conventional forms of political participation among youth, several studies refute the claim that today’s youth are apathetic and unengaged in politics. We know little, however, about what adolescents see as being political issues, and what issues they see as more political than others and why. This paper is aimed at exploring how Norwegian 16-year-olds characterise political issues and their reasoning behind the criteria they give for categorising an issue as political. The findings reported in this paper are based on semi-structured interviews with nine 16-year-old students in five different upper secondary schools in the east of Norway and five adult “experts” on politics in the social sciences. In general, students seemed to have quite similar views on what constitutes more and less political issues. Most frequently mentioned was that the more political issues are the “big” and “important” ones and issues that affect many people. From this follows, according to some students, that national and international issues are more political than local issues. The students have different perceptions when it comes to whether or not disagreement about an issue should constitute a criteria. Two specific examples of highly political issues are repeated by several students, namely the environment/global warming and the currently ongoing refugee crisis. These issues cut straight to the core of several of the criteria given by students. Gender equality was also mentioned as an example of a political issue by several students. However, when asked whether the activities of the family at home are political, the students said no. This issue, then, is characterised both as political and as private by several students. The students' criteria for categorising an issue as political, the students’ specific examples of highly political issues, and the case of gender equality will be discussed. Additionally, the students’ perceptions will be compared with the perceptions of five academics in the social sciences.